I agree with other reviewers. Cute item but not great quality. Essentially its a straight silver wire frame wrapped in brown paper. The paper tears when you try to form the tree into the pictured shape. Additionally in my case, the box was net sealed and the red christmas bulb that is supposed to come with it was missing. I should probably return it but its not worth the hassle.
This Christmas Tree Rug Pad Mat is the perfect solution to all of your tree mishaps! Prevent watering spills and scratches from ruining your floors with this safe layer of protection! Featuring a rubber backing and thick pile, this pad will keep your tree base in place while also protecting your floors from your tree stand, water or sap. It is the perfect size so it can be easily hidden by your favorite tree skirt or collar!
Much of the situation is due to the way artificial trees are manufactured: Almost all of them come out of a handful of factories in Taiwan and China. So while the companies selling the trees specify the details of their designs, the companies making the trees use similar materials and even many of the same basic components. That means you will be able to find a great artificial tree, even if it’s not our pick.
Add a traditional touch to your holiday home Add a traditional touch to your holiday home deor this season with our 24 in. Artifical Meadow Fir Christmas Wreath. This wreath features 225 evergreen tips for an elegant natural look. Pre-wired with 35 battery-operated warm white LED lights for a gorgeous glow. A timer is included allowing you to ... More + Product Details Close
Here at the Strategist, we like to think of ourselves as crazy (in the good way) about the stuff we buy, but as much as we’d like to, we can’t try everything. Which is why we have People’s Choice, in which we find the best-reviewed (that’s four-to-five-star reviews and lots of ‘em) products and single out the most convincing. Here, because winter is coming, we’ve chosen the best artificial Christmas trees on Amazon.
“This is a beautiful tree! When you first receive it, you might be worried that it’s too sparse, but it is packed very well, so you must take the time to fluff out each branch. Once we put the lights and ornaments on it, there were no open spaces to see between the branches. I liked that it was not as wide at the bottom as our previous tree. It took up less space width-wise and used fewer ornaments, but still has a very full look. It also doesn’t shed.”
Cost and realism go hand in hand. Using molds often taken from actual branches, artificial-tree manufacturers shape polyethylene, or PE, to produce highly realistic branch tips. More tips generally make the tree look fuller, with fewer gaps, and more tips cost more money. Similarly, a higher percentage of polyethylene in a tree’s construction generally equates to greater realism—and a higher price. Our pick, for reference, has 1,867 tips and is 37 percent polyethylene, and is convincingly lifelike even up close. You can get trees with far more eye-popping stats, though. This particularly lovely Balsam Fir from Balsam Hill’s most-realistic line of trees, for example, has almost 6,000 tips and is 70 percent polyethylene—and comes at a price to match that extravagance. As with real trees, overall bigger sizes come with bigger costs: House of Holiday, for example, carries more than two dozen trees measuring 12 feet or taller with price tags north of $1,000.
Hi reader in the U.S., it seems you use Wikipedia a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but this Friday we need your help. We’re not salespeople. We’re librarians, archivists, and information junkies. We depend on donations averaging $16.36, but fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $3, the price of your coffee this Friday, Wikipedia could keep thriving. Thank you.
The tree was traditionally decorated with "roses made of colored paper, apples, wafers, tinsel, [and] sweetmeats". In the 18th century, it began to be illuminated by candles, which were ultimately replaced by Christmas lights after the advent of electrification. Today, there is a wide variety of traditional ornaments, such as garlands, baubles, tinsel, and candy canes. An angel or star might be placed at the top of the tree to represent the Angel Gabriel or the Star of Bethlehem, respectively, from the Nativity.[5][6] Edible items such as gingerbread, chocolate and other sweets are also popular and are tied to or hung from the tree's branches with ribbons.
“This product does what it says it will do. The screw-in braces are very easy to use, and held an eight-foot tree without any problems whatsoever. I’m sure it would be fine with a ten-footer. I got another one for my parents-in-law, after I used their ancient tree stand, which took me an HOUR to get set up right! This stand should take no more than ten minutes to get your tree up and stabilized. Merry Christmas!”

When shopping for the right Christmas tree stand, there are a few specifications you must take note of. Most importantly, how large of a tree will the stand accommodate? If you like to make full use of your vaulted ceiling with a large real tree, make sure you can fit your 12-foot-tall tree in the stand base. Likewise, artificial trees generally have skinny poles that will only fit in specific models. We make it clear what type and size of tree are best for each stand.

We also found the Best Choice tree really easy to set up. Simply click the three tree sections into place, fluff and you’re done. The only challenging part was the top third of the tree. Some of its branches were compressed so tightly against the center pole that we didn’t realize they needed to be pulled down at first. There were some complaints on Amazon about the top of this tree being too small, and we think that this could be why.

The Downswept Douglas Fir tree features FEEL-REAL branch The Downswept Douglas Fir tree features FEEL-REAL branch tip technology creating a tree with remarkable realism. This tree is pre-strung with 750 Dual Color lights that change from warm white to multicolor with the touch of a button. The bulbs are low-voltage LEDs that are energy-efficient long lasting and cool ... More + Product Details Close

Several other species are used to a lesser extent. Less-traditional conifers are sometimes used, such as giant sequoia, Leyland cypress, Monterey cypress and eastern juniper. Various types of spruce tree are also used for Christmas trees (including the blue spruce and, less commonly, the white spruce); but spruces begin to lose their needles rapidly upon being cut, and spruce needles are often sharp, making decorating uncomfortable. Virginia pine is still available on some tree farms in the southeastern United States; however, its winter color is faded. The long-needled eastern white pine is also used there, though it is an unpopular Christmas tree in most parts of the country, owing also to its faded winter coloration and limp branches, making decorating difficult with all but the lightest ornaments. Norfolk Island pine is sometimes used, particularly in Oceania, and in Australia, some species of the genera Casuarina and Allocasuarina are also occasionally used as Christmas trees. But, by far, the most common tree is the Monterey pine. Adenanthos sericeus or Albany woolly bush is commonly sold in southern Australia as a potted living Christmas tree. Hemlock species are generally considered unsuitable as Christmas trees due to their poor needle retention and inability to support the weight of lights and ornaments.

However, once the branches are in place, they stay formed exactly how you set them. The Best Choice tree branches also sit higher off the ground than the NTC tree, meaning that you can easily slide gifts underneath. It had minimal shedding when we set it up, requiring just one quick sweep of a broom to undo the damage. And at less than $90, this tree is also one of the best deals of the holiday season.

In the Western Christian tradition, Christmas trees are variously erected on days such as the first day of Advent or even as late as Christmas Eve depending on the country;[7] customs of the same faith hold that the two traditional days when Christmas decorations, such as the Christmas tree, are removed are Twelfth Night and, if they are not taken down on that day, Candlemas, the latter of which ends the Christmas-Epiphany season in some denominations.[7][8]

A reference to the animated television special A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) based on the comic strip Peanuts by American cartoonist Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000), in which the title character Charlie Brown picks an unattractive Christmas tree to decorate. The selection of the tree represents a protest against the commercialization of Christmas.

Comparing the Cinco to our pick, Wirecutter general manager David Perpich actually finds the Cinco’s bolt-tightening work to be a benefit, as he likes to have a lot of control when positioning the tree. “My take,” he says “Krinner is easier to stand up solo. Cinco is easier to make adjustments. If someone is doing this solo and ‘good enough’ works, the Krinner is a dream. If someone has a partner or wants to ability to tweak and get it just right, cinco is way better.” We’d add the Cinco is likely to be better able to compensate for crooked trees or trees with knots or other odd shapes at the point where it attaches to the stand.
Another thing we loved about the NTC tree is that its branch tips are varied in length. It has the same amount as the Best Choice tree (1346), but some are short and some are long, giving the tree a more organic, and therefore realistic, look. Our anti-artificial tree tester even mentioned that this tree “looked better than [he] expected it to” after fluffing.
If you long for the beautiful glow of lights on your tree but dread untangling the wires, Balsam Hill's pre-lit Christmas trees are the answer. All of our lights are UL® approved and professionaly strung on the tree by hand to minimize the appearance of wires. Each of our pre-lit trees for indoor use come with premium commercial grade lights so that if one bulb burns out or is removed, the rest stay lit. We have a wide variety of pre-lit lighting options to suit every decorating need.
Cost: The cost of artificial Christmas trees varies dramatically. And, while it’s true that higher cost is usually synonymous with a higher branch tip count and better looking tree, there are some bargains out there that look pretty realistic for an affordable price. The trees on our list run the gambit in cost, starting at about $20 (for a tiny apartment-sized tree) to over $100 for one of our top contenders. Though all of our picks fall under $200, it’s not unheard of to drop nearly half a grand for a tree.

At only 2 ft. tall the Crestwood Spruce At only 2 ft. tall the Crestwood Spruce Tree is great for tabletop display or for adding holiday cheer to children's or secondary rooms. Trimmed with silver bristle pine cones red berries and glitter this tree is pre-lit with 35 energy-efficient and long lasting warm white LED lights. It features ... More + Product Details Close
If our pick isn’t your cup of tea, the good news is, you generally get what you pay for in artificial trees, and you can rely on a few key specs when shopping. The price directly relates to the number of branch tips, the height, and the girth—an often-overlooked factor that Gurino emphasized in our interview—and all those details contribute to the tree’s general level of realism. Pretty much all trees come out of a handful of factories in China and Taiwan to be branded and sold here, with the same tree sometimes renamed. National Tree Company representatives told us on a visit to its New Jersey headquarters that the tree sold as the Bucks County Fir in Pennsylvania may be called something totally different in Connecticut. You may very well find another brand selling a different version of the Downswept Douglas Fir, disguised by some superficial finishing touches that could suit your style better. If one of the brands we recommend has something you like, and the specs and price seem in line with our reporting, you’ve probably found your perfect tree.
And even if you have room to store an artificial tree, bear in mind that, as Gurino noted, it won’t easily go back into its original box: “Once you fluff it, it’ll never fit exactly.” After we were done with our photo shoot, I spent about half an hour painstakingly collapsing each branch of our tree, one by one, as tight as I could against the central pole, to prep the tree for shipping. My best advice: Start from the top (the shortest branches) and end at the bottom (the longest branches). First pinch the branch tips together into a sort of bundle; then fold up the branch itself. Even after I did that, though, it made some obvious bulges in the original shipping box.
Finding a sturdy stand for extra-large Christmas trees can be a challenge. Search no more and use Santa's Solution Extreme Christmas Tree Stand to support your giant Christmas tree this holiday season. Made with solid steel, this Christmas tree stand is strong and can support trees between 7 and 14 ft. tall. Comes with steel legs for extra support.
Puleo is Larry Gurino’s favored brand at House of Holiday; like National Tree, it’s a New Jersey–based, family-run business. Unfortunately, Puleo is not as widely available as some other brands, but its quality ranks among the best. Gurino has sold Puleo trees for 20 years, and they were some of the nicest-looking trees we came across in our search. If you find one you like, you can be confident in your purchase.
^ Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann (1978). Das Weihnachtsfest. Eine Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte der Weihnachtszeit [Christmas: A cultural and social history of Christmastide] (in German). Bucher. p. 22. ISBN 3-7658-0273-5. Man kann als sicher annehmen daß die Luzienbräuche gemeinsam mit dem Weinachtsbaum in Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts aus Deutschland über die gesellschaftliche Oberschicht der Herrenhöfe nach Schweden gekommen sind. (English: One can assume with certainty that traditions of lighting, together with the Christmas tree, crossed from Germany to Sweden in the 19th century via the princely upper classes.)
Charlie Brown’s tree doesn’t have the little berries on it, instead it just has a lone red ornament that pulls the top of the branch into an arch. I used what I already hand on hand to make this craft, and I think visually, this craft still makes the same impact and leaves the same impression as a more similar tree – small substitutions like this only serve to personalize the craft and I don’t think they take away from it at all.
This Downswept Douglas Pencil Slim tree features Feel This Downswept Douglas Pencil Slim tree features Feel Real branch tip technology creating a tree with remarkable realism. These crush-resistant branch tips are molded from real tree branches for an authentic living tree appearance. This tree is pre-strung with 350 Dual Color lights that change from warm white to multicolor ... More + Product Details Close
^ Connelly, Mark (2000). Christmas at the Movies: Images of Christmas in American, British and European Cinema. I.B.Tauris. p. 186. ISBN 9781860643972. A chapter on representations of Christmas in Soviet cinema could, in fact be the shortest in this collection: suffice it to say that there were, at least officially, no Christmas celebrations in the atheist socialist state after its foundation in 1917.
In 2013, we took our top four stands to Adams Nurseries in Lancaster, New York, where the staff members generously loaned us a pair of trees to set up and take down. Both of our test trees were Douglas firs, one of the most common Christmas trees sold in the US. One was 6 feet 8 inches tall with a trunk diameter of 3½ inches, and the other was 8 feet 4 inches tall with a trunk diameter of 5½ inches—a fairly typical span between large and small, which let us gauge how well each stand could handle most people’s trees.
^ so in The Lutheran Witness, Volume 83 (1964), p. 548 "the Chrismon (from CHRISt-MONogram) tree", and in James Edgar, Ellen Edgar, A Chrismon Service (1981), p. 2. The word's actual etymology, from Middle Latin (Landulf of Milan, 12th century) crismon, is less than clear: George Henry Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers, The riddle of the 'Labarum' and the origin of Christian symbols, Allen & Unwin, 1966, p. 28; "I can find no roots, etymology or grounds for the adoption of the word adopted by some Christians, 'Chrismon', which is supposed to mean the 'Monogram of Christ', and which appears in some dictionaries (i.e. Funk and Wagnalis, 1922)."
Who does't remember and love the classic Charlie Brown Christmas? A Peanuts favorite, this sparse 18-inch tree is designed to look just like the wilting tree from the classic Charlie Brown production, and comes complete with a lovely pale blue Linus blanket as a bundled accessory. Not everyone can have that perfectly shaped and decorated Christmas Tree - celebrate the lesser trees of this Christmas season! Charlie Brown showed us all that the meaning of Christmas was in your heart and that every tree has that potential to be the greatest Christmas tree ever. Keep this spirit alive and get this heart warming Christmas Tree to decorate your home this season. Sure to bring a smile to everyone's face, and perfect for any Charlie Brown fans. Your family will love it for years to come!
This Christmas Tree Rug Pad Mat is the perfect solution to all of your tree mishaps! Prevent watering spills and scratches from ruining your floors with this safe layer of protection! Featuring a rubber backing and thick pile, this pad will keep your tree base in place while also protecting your floors from your tree stand, water or sap. It is the perfect size so it can be easily hidden by your favorite tree skirt or collar!

This Downswept Douglas Pencil Slim tree features Feel This Downswept Douglas Pencil Slim tree features Feel Real branch tip technology creating a tree with remarkable realism. These crush-resistant branch tips are molded from real tree branches for an authentic living tree appearance. This tree is pre-strung with 350 Dual Color lights that change from warm white to multicolor ... More + Product Details Close

Whether you pick a blue spruce or a balsam fir, you put all that effort into finding and cutting down the perfect Christmas tree—don't let it go to waste. The right Christmas tree stand can help keep your tree stable, hydrated, and alive longer (not to mention, help you show off your tree's best side), so they're worth the investment—unless you plan to go the artificial tree route.
For example, the pre-lit 7½-foot-tall, 59-inch-wide version of its Rocky Mountain Pine (same dimensions as our top pick) has 2,764 branch tips (versus our pick’s 1,867) and 1,000 bulbs (versus 750). And it has 54 percent realistic polyethylene branch tips, versus 37 percent. On the other hand, you have to choose white or colored bulbs; the Balsam Hill Rocky Mountain Pine doesn’t come in a color-switching model like our pick. And the extra tips, percent-polyethylene, and bulbs come at a premium: The Rocky Mountain pine has a list price of about $860, and typically retails for roughly $520—historically, $100 or more than our pick. If that’s in your budget, go for it: It’s a terrific tree. To get a similarly specced Balsam Hill tree at a price close to our pick, you’re limited to the company’s Traditional line, which is made entirely of PVC.

Why spend a bundle on Christmas decorations when you can save big and buy even more gifts for family and friends? Decorate your home indoors and out with attractive holiday and Christmas wreaths, garlands and more; enjoy elegance, savings and style. It’s easy to achieve a designer look when you shop online; savvy shoppers check in early and often because the selection is always changing and supplies are limited. Stock up on gorgeous Christmas garlands and wreaths along with elegant door wreaths, window wreaths, oversize wreaths, indoor/outdoor wreaths, door swags, fireplace mantel garland, holiday garlands and so much more. Share the holiday joy with decorative Christmas wreaths – display them indoors and out for a festive touch and dress up your home for the holidays. Decorate the porch, portico, deck and more; wrap holiday garland around mailbox posts and walkway lights – you can afford to go big with bargains that stretch your décor dollars.

Customers rave about the product’s sturdy base and easy mounting. Based on the design, they state it’s easy to rotate the trunk as well if need be. They also claim that this stand works particularly well on larger trees with a wide base. One reviewer even claimed, “This is by-far the best stand I've ever used.” Since many of the commenters have been using the product for years, the longevity of the product simply goes unstated.
The Krinner Tree Genie is the best-selling Christmas tree stand on Amazon, and for good-reason—all you have to do is put your tree in and pump the foot pedal to tighten it in place, and it only takes a minute. It can secure any tree up to 12 feet tall and has a basin that retains 2.5 gallons of water, plus it has an automatic water level indicator so you can easily see if it's running low.
Virtually all contemporary artificial trees have branches permanently mounted on hinges on the center pole. This design means that they all unfurl into place quickly when you set up the tree; in the past, you often had to snap individual branches into sockets on the center pole one by one, a time-consuming and fussy process. For this guide, we sought trees with permanently mounted, hinged branches—not that there’s much choice on that anymore.

Next, we consulted review sites like Wirecutter and cultivation sites like New York Magazine to get a more well-rounded view of the trees on the market. And finally, we browsed home decorating sites like Good Housekeeping to see which artificial trees they liked best. From there, we charted all of the trees and their specs (like height and material) to compare and contrast which ones were best.

Categories: Emmy Award-winning programsCBS television specials1960s American television specials1960s American animated filmsAmerican filmsAnimated television specialsChristmas television specialsPeanuts television specialsPeabody Award-winning broadcastsFilms featuring anthropomorphic charactersFilms directed by Bill Melendez1965 television specialsTelevision programs written by Charles M. Schulz
The Christmas tree became very common in the United States in the early nineteenth century. The first image of a Christmas tree was published in 1836 as the frontispiece to The Stranger's Gift by Hermann Bokum. The first mention of the Christmas tree in American literature was in a story in the 1836 edition of The Token and Atlantic Souvenir, titled "New Year's Day," by Catherine Maria Sedgwick, where she tells the story of a German maid decorating her mistress's tree. Also, a woodcut of the British Royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle, initially published in The Illustrated London News December 1848, was copied in the United States at Christmas 1850, in Godey's Lady's Book. Godey's copied it exactly, except for the removal of the Queen's tiara and Prince Albert's moustache, to remake the engraving into an American scene.[55] The republished Godey's image became the first widely circulated picture of a decorated evergreen Christmas tree in America. Art historian Karal Ann Marling called Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, shorn of their royal trappings, "the first influential American Christmas tree".[56] Folk-culture historian Alfred Lewis Shoemaker states, "In all of America there was no more important medium in spreading the Christmas tree in the decade 1850–60 than Godey's Lady's Book". The image was reprinted in 1860, and by the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become even more common in America.[55]